


Let's dance in my borrowed shoes tonight.

by Lwoorl



Series: Talon!Dick Grayson Series [3]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU
Genre: Dick Grayson is a Talon, Gen, Minor mention of rape, No editing we die like mne, Robbery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-07
Updated: 2018-12-07
Packaged: 2019-09-13 11:36:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16891866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lwoorl/pseuds/Lwoorl
Summary: Dick is missing. Someone has to cover for him.





	Let's dance in my borrowed shoes tonight.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, look. Finally I wrote something else in this series.
> 
> I want you to vote guys, what should come next in the series: A fic about Bruce, or a fic About Jason. Tell me in the comments.

Cass has never been attached to places, at least not in the same way the rest of her family seems to be. 

She knows no two places are the same, the buildings change, the food changes, the weather changes, even the way people move changes. Sometimes they will even grow and change and move as if they were alive. But at the end places are just an union of stuff.

Of course, she has places she prefers over others, like anyone else... But the way Batman watches over Gotham, the way he loves the city and talks about it as another person he needs to save, an innocent in need of protection. That she can't do.

A city is not alive. It has no blood, no pulse, no thought, no soul. At best a city is a machine, and part of their work is to clean it, oil it and keep it running, but at the end it remains a soulless machine nonetheless. 

At worst it's a voracious, salivating mouth. A shambling metallic monster stuck to the ground, opening and closing its jaws like crazy, swallowing anything its tongue can reach. Leaving people with no other option than to hide between its teeth, curling at the feet of its fangs like caries, hoping it won't find them and wash their lives away down its throat.

Heroes, vigilantes, people like her. They find places and keep them away from turning into the crazy mouths. Sometimes they just have to oil some cogs, sometimes they have to sew their lips shut and take out their teeth so the creatures won't sink the fangs into new victims.

That's what Batman did. He fought a fly trap and sew it shut. It still will jerk and trash, trying to open big, and it still needs to be taken care of so it doesn't shredle the ropes holding it from biting down with all its might, but now it isn't chewing wildly like it used to.

She can see why he would be proud of it, why people can look at stitched lips and broken teeth and placed muzzles and be proud of those saved, those that now will never be in the stomach. She can see how someone can take a city and make it their project and then be glad of turning it into a better place.

But the way her family pets the dragon's head, the way they fondly think of the shutted hungry beaks in the ground, the way they speak of them as a lover, or a pet, or a son.  _ That _ Cass can't understand.

She looks down at the buildings in Blüdhaven, and she can't see a partner or a friend. It doesn't matter if she swears loyalty to it, or if she loves or cares or will lie her life down for the place. She knows the city doesn't care and won't think twice to chew her and eat her and spit her at the first chance it can get.

Maybe, she thinks,  _ maybe _ that's why she isn't fit to put down roots. Why she has never been able to find her own gushing, chewing mouth, and take care of it like so many other like her have. 

Maybe that's why she's going to fuck up taking care for someone else's. Maybe she's taking on babysitting duty without knowing kids are more than little bundles of organs, without knowing they need more than someone to feed them. Maybe it's like that, maybe she can't see something in places others can, and she will ruin someone else's city because of it.

Or maybe not.

 

It's a rainy night in Blüdhaven. The water softening the neon lights all around her as she jumps between rooftops.

Blüdhaven is ugly. There's no other way to say it. It's ugly. There's crime, corruption and poverty everywhere. Protection rackets, mobs, violence. What it lacks on costumed villains it fills with banal crime. It's the kind of city where people can't walk with their cellphones out for fear of being robbed. 

You would think it would be a gloomy, dark place, and you would be wrong. 

Instead of dark alleys and shadowy streets, Blüdheaven covers it all under its lights and big billboards. Showering everything with saturated colors that hurt the eyes, as if hiding... But somehow, despite all its efforts, the brilliant colors can't fool anyone, and if anything it only heightens the dangerous thing inside… Like a poisonous frog. 

And yet, under the rain, when the neon signs blurry and the streets below fill with colorful umbrellas. When the city floods with the sound of feet against the puddles.  _ Tap tap tapping _ like in a dance. On nights like these, Cass sees why her brother decided to take it under his wing. If only a little.

It feels like a watercolor world.

A scream rings through the night, taking her out of her trance. She quickly changes direction and charges in.

In a lonely street, under a giant shiny neon sign for a bar, a man corners a woman. At first impression it seems like a rape, but, no, not right. Cass knows how those guys move: Purposely, with malice, entitlement. They plan and are careful and usually have no empathy for the victims whatsoever, a lot of them don't even realize they're doing something bad.

This guy doesn't move like that. He's afraid. His hands shake as he holds the knife, he doesn't look at the woman but at her purse, at her pockets, at her necklace. He's probably just in need of money. He doesn't want to, but is ready to kill for it.

Cass sweeps in, takes the knife away, knocks him out in one hit and ties him up. It takes less than a second.

“Nightwing!” The woman exclaims. She doesn't run away, of course she doesn't. No victim has ran away from Cass since she changed of costume. 

It's… Cumbersome. She isn't used to people staying to talk to her after she's finished. 

Usually she would just leave, not paying attention to them unless it seems like someone who needs medical attention or some kind of support. But this woman. This woman is fine, a bit rattled, but fine. She will get home, tell her family what happened, focusing more on how she met a hero than the fact she could have died. Cass knows just by looking how she moves.

She wants to leave. She wants to contact the police so they come for the guy and leave. But she still doesn't know how to just leave without seeing rude, and this isn't her mantle. She has to return it without stains.

She waves. 

“Thank you for saving me.” She continues, walking towards Cass, a smile on her lips. When she gets a better look at her the woman crooks her head.

“I always thought you were a boy?”

“...A lot of people think that”

“I see” The woman smiles. She conciderates something for a moment and then moves to kiss her.

Cass dodges it and the kiss lands on her cheek. She would evade it completely, but Nightwing has a reputation of friendly and flirty. She has to return the costume without stains.

“Thanks again.” She says. Cass nods and the woman finally walks away. 

As soon as she's out of view Cass scrubs the lipstick off her face. Why did she volunteer for this?

It's ok. She tells to herself. She will get better, she can do a good job, and then will return it without stains. It's only been a couple weeks since she took the costume.

Thinking that, she leaves the man below the edge of a roof, shielded from the rain, sends a signal to the police and goes back to jumping on the rooftops.

  
  
  


She's standing on a rooftop five months later, scrubbing lipstick from her face once more as she makes sure a girl makes it home safe.

Her com beeps as the girl's closing her door, Cass takes the call.

“Nightwing?” It's Barbara.

“Here.”

“...We found D.” 

Cass almost slips from the roof as she hears the notice. Her brother has been found!

She has to be honest, she will miss a little working as Nightwing, but it's no big deal. She never got that attached to it in the first place, it's not her name, after all.

She's about to ask when is he retaking his city when Barbara continues.

“You will need to keep covering Blüdheaven for a while.”

Cass narrows her eyes. Barbara is being vague. _“A while?”_

“Indefinitely.”

“...Is he ok?”

There's a moment of silence in which Cass feels like she's about to drown, and then Barbara continues. “He's alive.”

Cass let's go of a breath she didn't know she was holding. Of course he's alive, she's known that all along. She never thought, not for a moment, that he wouldn't be. Why is she so tense all the sudden?

“It's… Hard to explain. Batman has called for a meeting tomorrow to discuss the details of his condition. 4PM, at the cave.”

“... Understood.”

Barbara hangs up after that. Cass is… She isn't sure.

It sounded like something bad happened with Dick. But she will save her feelings for after she _actually_ knows what's going on.

Yes. Yes, that's right. She won't worry beforehand.

Thinking that, her knees bend despite herself, and she sits on the roof.

Her brother's alive. She's always known that but now she knows for sure. Dick Grayson is alive. It's ok.

Doesn't matter what happened, she knows they can get over it. Like they always have. As long as they're all alive everything will be fine.

She will return it. She's taken care of it so far, she will return it without any stain.

She stands up, and it's only then she notices it started to rain. She looks at the buildings around her, her borrowed city, and she feels her chest ache.

_...A watercolor world. _

**Author's Note:**

> I'm actually quite happy with how this turned out. For some reason I always get inspired when writing Cass.
> 
> Please remember I get my vital energy from comments. If you don't leave any, no matter how small, I will starve and die in real life.


End file.
